Broward man freed by DNA after 26 years in prison wants cops to pay

A man who spent 25 years and 240 days in prison for rape and murder — until DNA testing set him free in 2009 — now wants the former police officers accused of framing him to pay.

Anthony Caravella was 15 and mentally challenged with an IQ of 67 when, his attorney says, the former investigators from Miramar and the Broward Sheriff's Office coerced him into falsely confessing to the November 1983 slaying of 58-year-old Ada Cox Jankowski on the grounds of Miramar Elementary School.

"We are here today to right a wrong that started in 1983," Caravella's attorney Barbara Heyer told jurors in the civil lawsuit during opening statements Tuesday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

She said the officers lied, hid evidence that would have cleared Caravella early in the investigation and committed other "gross misconduct" that caused him to spend more than half his life in prison.

A legal guardian, appointed by a judge to protect Caravella's rights, filed a federal civil rights suit on his behalf in 2011 against former Miramar police officers William Mantesta, George Pierson, Bill Guess and former Sheriff's Office Major Tony Fantigrassi, who were all involved in the investigation.

Caravella's lawyer is seeking an unspecified amount of money in damages and compensation from the city of Miramar, the Sheriff's Office and all four men — in their personal and former official capacities.

Lawyers representing the former officers and their employers told the jury their clients did nothing wrong and blamed Caravella, now 44.

"Mr. Caravella came forward and he told them he committed the crime ... the evidence will show that he did this voluntarily and of his own accord," Jamie Cole, one of the lawyers for Miramar said in his opening statement.

DNA testing was not available at the time.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge James Cohn dismissed some of the allegations against Miramar, the Sheriff's Office and the officers. He also dismissed claims against former Sheriff Ken Jenne. But the judge ruled the remaining allegations should go to a jury.

Cole and the Sheriff's Office lawyer, Gregg Toomey, told the jurors that Caravella didn't just confess to the officers — in taped conversations — but that he also confessed to his mother, who later died while he was imprisoned.

Caravella's lawyer said officers botched the investigation and ignored or hid evidence that didn't fit their theory. Mantesta had a history of coercing Caravella into confessing to minor crimes and the officers took advantage of the teen's mental challenges to pin the unsolved murder on him, Heyer said.

Caravella was arrested on allegations he stole a bicycle, then questioned for hours at a time — unrecorded — over several days while officers fed him information and details about the crime. In four statements that were taped, Caravella went from saying he had information about other people committing the crime to finally saying that he acted alone. His lawyer said Caravella confessed because officers convinced him there would be no bad consequences for him and that he could get a female friend out of trouble if he said what they wanted him to say.

But Caravella got many of the key details wrong, despite the coaching he got from the officers, Heyer said.

He was swiftly convicted by a jury and sentenced to life in prison by a judge who told him that he would have sentenced the juvenile to death — which was allowed at the time — if the jury had recommended his execution.

Caravella's appeal was also rapidly rejected and he languished in prison until his brother called the Sun Sentinel in 2001 and asked if DNA testing could be done.

Reporters who examined the case raised concerns and Broward Chief Assistant Public Defender Diane Cuddihy pursued the case for more than eight years, persuading the Broward State Attorney's Office and the courts to permit testing.

Eventually, DNA testing excluded Caravella as the source of any evidence found on the victim or at the crime scene and he was released in September 2009. Further testing confirmed that result and in March 2010, a Broward Circuit judge tossed Caravella's convictions and life sentence — at the request of state prosecutors — and apologized to Caravella in court on behalf of Florida's criminal justice system.

Caravella, who lives in Broward County and works menial construction jobs, has not been in any trouble since he was released.

The DNA testing turned up results that led Broward prosecutors and Miramar police to name another man — Anthony Martinez — as a "person of interest" in the Jankowski homicide in September 2010. The victim was last seen in the 17-year-old's company, leaving the Miramar Lounge with him hours before she was killed.

The Miramar officers initially pursued Martinez as a prime suspect in 1983. But officers gave up questioning him after his mother said she was hiring a lawyer.